452 Resisting Publics
28.or an account (in Turkish) on these debates over the statue, see the daily F
newspaper Hürriyet, 5 July 2000, http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/
haber.aspx?id=-166063. Over the years, the statue has become a meet-
ing point for diverse demonstrations, notably to reclaim women’s rights.
Recently, the site was chosen by the elected Kurdish female mayor to call
for and celebrate peace.
29.Şu günlerde en fazla gereksinim duyduğumuz insan hakları, bütün “
milletin özlemle beklediği bir ihtiyaç durumuna gelmiştir. Bu heykeli
yaptırmakla gurur duyuyoruz.” (Milliyet, 13 December 1996)
30.Mazlum Arslan, ‘Kadın barışı, hoşgörüyü simgeler. Dostlukları pekiştirir “
...iddeti kınıyoruz. Neden heykelini dikelim’ diye konustu Ş ... Cumhuriyet
Meydanı’nda ‘canlı bomba’ eyleminden sonra tüm Tunceli halkının güven-
lik güçlerinin yanında yeraldığını söyleyen Mazlum Arslan, ‘Düğünleri bile
iptal ettik. Şehitlere sahip çıktığımızı kimse söylemiyor’ dedi.” (Hürriyet, 5
July 2000)
31.ost of the PKK forces have withdrawn and joined Iraqi camps since M
- The Turkish army’s hawks are however determined to exterminate
any remaining threat (rejecting amnesty), even if it means entering north-
ern Iraq. In June 2004, Abdullah Öcalan allowed its guerrillas to fight back
ongoing operations. A new cease-fire was again unilaterally declared in
October 2006, without much success. In June 2007, the PKK again declared
a cease-fire, keeping its right to fight back in case of aggression. In Tunceli,
the situation is even more complex due to the relative autonomy of Tunceli-
native PKK fighters from the central authority of the Party (some of them
refused to comply to the 1999 declaration of cease-fire), as well as the pres-
ence of Turkish leftist revolutionary groups in its mountains.
32.uring the summer of 2004, at least four killings by “unidentified assail- D
ants” (possibly military special forces or guerrilla members punishing “trai-
tors”) took place in villages of the province.
33.n a discourse pronounced in Diyarbakır in 1923: I “Diyarbakırlı, Vanlı,
Erzurumlu, Trabzonlu, Istanbullu, Trakyalı ve Makedonyalı hep bir ırkın
evlatları, hep aynı cevherin damarlarıdır”; that is, “People of Diyarbakır, of
Van, of Trabzon, of Thrace and Macedonia are all children of the same race,
veins of the same precious mineral.”
34.s is a play on words: Literally, “Tunceli” means “hand of bronze” in Thi
Turkish. Atatürk himself wanted to rename the territory of “Dersim” (a